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Tax payers 'could save up to €240' in 2013

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Tax payers 'could save up to €240' in 2013
Photo: DPA

Germans could pay up to €240 less in taxes in 2013 if planned government changes come into force, a newspaper reported on Friday.

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Finance expert at Berlin's Free University, Frank Hechtner, figured out that Germans could be saving up to €20 a month in the coming year compared with what they paid in 2012, the Süddeutsche Zeitung said.

Thanks to the healthy state of the country's national pension pot, employees may well find themselves paying less into it this year. The government is planning on reducing monthly contributions from 19.6 percent to 18.9 percent of a person's wage.

This, if passed, could see an unmarried person earning €3,400 per month saving €185 in taxes each year. A married couple with two children could save €200.

The full effect will not become clear until April, when changes will be given the go ahead and come into force.

Potential upcoming reforms could, Hechtner said, also benefit lower earners by €100 per year. Currently, Germans may earn up to €400 per month without paying taxes but this figure should rise to €450 over 2013. Those earning up to €850 per month should pay reduced taxes.

But as Hechtner explained, although pension contributions may drop, Germans could find themselves paying slightly more in nursing care insurance. This is set to rise from 1.95 percent of a person's monthly wage to 2.05 percent.

Initially suggested tax reforms by the ruling Christian Union and Social Democrat coalition were rejected by the Social Democrats, who hold a majority in the Bundestag upper house of parliament. If they had been passed, middle earners could have been paying up to €350 less in taxes 2013.

The Local/jcw

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